Martin was kind of a space cadet, and I think he "proposed" this one year when the Big Ten was still at 11 teams in an effort to have the Jug game played even when Minnesota rotated off the schedule. This is how far we've come: Martin was alarmed that Michigan would have Minnesota rotate off the schedule once a decade, and now ACC teams will see each other once a decade.

It may be time to go in the thinkin' tank and come up with another ludicrously complicated dynamic scheduling setup that provides something resembling satisfaction. Or I could just… not do that again.

Even if the infractions committee was a lazy committee, and the committee was most certainly was that, perhaps the laziest in the entire NCAA, which would place him high in the running nationwide…

Last August, the NCAA trumpeted a new violation structure and additional committee members to review cases more quickly and efficiently.

How is that going?

So far, the NCAA has no Division I major violations cases on its public database since Fordham's baseball team was penalized last November. The nearly six-month stretch marks Division I's longest without a completed major case since an eight-month period in 1997 and '98.

Very, very quick and efficient, then. Add another reason to the enormous pile of reasons to deregulate kids getting money from wherever they want: they already are and the NCAA isn't even trying to do anything about it anymore. Even NCAA honchos admit it, and they won't admit anything.

“I think everybody would agree the NCAA enforcement procedures are broken,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said. “They haven't heard a case in eight months. Without the weight of perjury or the power of subpoena, it's a wonder they get to the bottom of anything."

Let's take all the money wasted on compliance people and spend it on anything else. Full cost of attendance scholarships. Non-revenue sports. Cotton candy machines. Whatever.

Excellent timing, at least. Caris LeVert had surgery on his foot to repair a stress fracture and will be out for a couple months. He should be back for Michigan's late summer training and make the Europe trip, so any effect on Michigan's season should be minimal.

Yup, definitely cursed. Rutgers picked up Minnesota transfer Phillip Nelson this offseason, just in time for Nelson to get into real bad trouble:

The unknown man then struck Kolstad, who witnesses say was knocked out before Nelson allegedly kicked Kolstad's head "like a soccer ball." Steph Stassen, who witnessed the incident, told the Star Tribune that Kolstad was "unconscious after the first punch" and didn't brace himself as he fell to the ground, hitting his head.

Rutgers dismissed the guy without saying anything horrendous, which qualifies as their best crisis communication in a decade.

Hair trigger. Michigan's axed men's tennis coach Bruce Berque after ten years, nine of which saw Michigan make the NCAA tournament. Berque was 66-25 in the Big Ten, and tennis has long been dominated by warm-weather schools. Firing the guy after one mediocre 6-5 Big Ten season that still saw Michigan make the tourney is very much on the Excellence Demander side of the scale.

Muddling through. Elsewhere in non-revenue sports in which guys have gotten a quick hook, baseball finishes its regular season this weekend with an odd nonconference series against #22 Kansas.

A late surge saw Michigan win 4 of their last six conference games and slide into fifth place. That puts them in the Big Ten tourney and lets them avoid a potential second-round matchup with 19-2 Indiana, one of the super-rare Big Ten teams that appears to be a threat to reach Omaha. The Hoosiers are 35-12 overall and #9 in the most recent Baseball America poll.

That's a lot. Penn State drew 72k to its spring game, which is kind of amazing since State College is tiny and isolated. That's more than the combined attendance for Michigan(15k… generously) and Michigan State(35k). Penn State did a big old thing with autograph lines and such, and held it late. Here's the impact of holding your spring game at the beginning of April versus the end:

Still, the April 26 crowd on the sunny, 55-degree day, was believed to be an unofficial spring game record in East Lansing and ranked as the 13th-largest in the nation.

"As colleges and universities generate growing revenue and publicity with each passing year for colleges and universities, the NCAA, and sponsors, the potential for exploitation and abuse of student-athletes has never been greater. In turn, the need for an organization dedicated to protecting student-athletes is more important than ever."

Referencing Northwestern scholarship football players' effort to unionize and a National Labor Relations Board regional director's determination that that athletes are employees who can unionize, the letter says "if the NCAA were accomplishing its mission of protecting student-athletes from exploitive practices those efforts would be unnecessary and likely unsuccessful."

Protecting athletes from exploitive practices? This is its mission? It may be its mission statement.

I like the idea of filling up non-conference schedule openings with other Big Ten teams. If we are going to play mid level BCS opponents we might as well play mid level Big Ten opponents. The only issue to resolve is whether or not these games would count towards conference standings.

If two schools want to play each other and can negotiate terms on thier own why shouldn't they play? The way I see it is if schools value their cross divisional rivalries, e.g. Little Brown Jug, then it is up to them to ensure it is played during the years that the conference doesn't have it scheduled.

And yes, personally I'd rather see Michigan play Purdue, Northwestern, Illinois, or Minnesota than SMU, BYU, Oregon State, or Colorado.

what he's saying is that you completely lose the point, and intent, of non-conference games if teams started doing this. I can see the value of your opinion, but I completely disagree with you. I think non-conference games should actually be played against non-conference opponents.

I see your point as well and honestly I think my point is largely mitigated by going to 9 conference games. How many teams actually want to schedule other conference members in the nonconference (you need at least 2 and their schedules have to line up)? Still freedom of choice is a good thing and who are we to determine what another fanbase/AD values in their schedule.

that's very true. How they want to schedule is their business, BUT I think we'd all agree that is such an incredibly stupid thing to do for a team vying for national relevance. The way rankings work and being recognized for playing quality opponents in order to get one of the coveted playoff spots, we need to look outside our conference and beyond the mediocrity.

Why would it hurt national relevance? Is it worse than playing Miami (OH) or App St? I like the idea, and would be in favor of it. Not every team would have to do it, and most wouldn't do it every year, but if you're filling out your schedule and want to have a BCS-level team in there, why not another Big Ten team that you aren't playing? I think it would be a cool way to get Wisco or Iowa on there when they usually wouldn't be.

with your last paragraph completely. There are going to be 8 or 9 conference games per year going forward. Of those games, pretty much 4 or 5 of those conference games will be good, exciting games. You want more of the bad games when we get lucky enough to not have them on the schedule. You want More Michigan v. Purdue? SMU, BYU, Oregon State, Colorado, sure these are not the cream of the crop of non-conference opponents but they will make for fun matchups that we don't see often.

I agree with you. I'd rather see Michigan play Purdue than any of the schools in that group. And if there is a home-and-home set up, going to the away game would be a lot easier, and we'd get more of the visiting fans to come to AA (which is good for local businesses and for people season ticket holders looking to sell their seats).

Looking at Michigan's schedules in the eighties, I believe it was from 1981 to 1984. For obvious reasons, all games against conference opponents were considered conference games.

There were a couple of teams that were unable to play the full slate of conference games. The one I remember is Ohio State in 1982, which lost out on a Rose Bowl trip because they played one fewer game than Michigan. Each team finished with one loss in conference play, but Ohio State won The Game that year. Because they had one fewer conference wins, though, they finished in second place.

A late surge saw Michigan win 4 of their last six conference games and slide into fifth place. That puts them in the Big Ten tourney and lets them avoid a potential second-round matchup with 19-2 Indiana

The Big Ten baseball tournament this year has been expanded to eight teams, so Michigan, which will finish either fourth or fifth, will be in the four-team bracket with Indiana (that bracket will include the 1, 4, 5, and 8 seeds). Michigan will play Minnesota on Wednesday in their opener. The winner of that game will play the winner of the game between Indiana and whoever finishes eighth.

FWIW....I think changes are coming to the NCAA's rules that will let the ACC and B1G not have such stupid schedules. The B1G is in better shape because they'll be playing nine games and have no protected crossover, but it's still hard no matter how you shake it to have a decent schedule with two divisions of seven teams. The ACC has already made a public push for more flexibility in scheduling, i.e., get rid of the rule that requires divisions in order to host a CCG. The NCAA is expected in August to hand over the autonomy that the "power five" conferences want, and I do think part of that will be freeing up the scheduling rules. At which point we'll probably see more than one conference scrap its divisions.

I don't follow tennis, but after spending a small amount of time looking into this, it's pretty clear why Berque was fired: In ten seasons, he won 0 Big Ten titles. Brandon has made it abundantly clear that he expects Michigan coaches in all sports to be winning conference titles on a consistent basis. Berque wasn't doing this.

Much like the University of Florida, however, which accepted Andy Jackson's resignation in 2012, the expectations at Michigan are high for all the athletic programs, and Berque was unable to break the stranglehold that Ohio State has had on the Big Ten conference, despite going 66-25 in the conference, and 159-104 overall.

The Buckeyes have consistently been the conference's top program for years now, and the current athletic director at Michigan, David Brandon, who started in 2010 and did not hire Berque, chose to look elsewhere for a coach to change that. An excellent recruiting class for this fall will be part of Berque's legacy, yet as always in situations like this, it is difficult for those student-athletes, who are committed to Michigan, but do not know now who their coach will be.

I usually hate clay travis, but he made several valid arguments in his article and to take random samplings from his article (as the article sourced to did) is disingenuous. At least cite to the actual article and let people make up their minds for themselves, rather than sending the readers to an article full of straw man arguments

I don't think a lot of people understand that the Spring Game isn't popular among students because it falls during final exams. I got two degrees from UM and spent 7 years in AA. Myself and a bunch of my friends were and still are rabid football fans and we never went to a Spring Game (and never missed a regular game). We simply had final exams to worry about in the spring. Whether the lack of students at the game accounts for the entire disparity in attendance, probably not, but I have to believe it plays a factor.